In school we are reading books that involve social issues. My book club and I read a book that is a social issue book called A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass.

The challenge Mia (the main character with the disease) faces is she has a disease called synesthesia. It’s when you see sounds, numbers, and letters and when you see (or hear) those things, than she sees color. She was trying to hide her challenge that she faces at school but than something happened at school which made her reveal her challenge that she has been going through for a while.

The challenge Mia faces affects how she interacts with the world because if she is talking to someone like her family or her friends than every time she says something than she sees colors. It is very confusing for her when she talks because she can’t concentrate on what she is saying when at the same time she is seeing colors when she talks. Also she doesn’t want anyone to know about her disease that she has and if she interacts with people around her than there is going to be someway that they find out. For example, when she was at school something happened that made her reveal what was happening inside her.

The challenge affects the way Mia thinks or behaves when she is alone because after what happened at school Mia was disappointed and at the same time she had to accept that she has a disease and a lot of people knew about it such as her friends and family. She had to keep thinking of different ways she could get rid of it and finally had to go to the doctors. Also when she was alone she got a message from a boy who also had the disease and they talked about it together. I think when talking about it to someone who had the same disease as her, Mia felt better because she was sharing her feelings. Instead of sharing her feelings with someone who doesn’t know about what’s going with Mia, she shares it with someone who knows about it and who has the same problem. I think it makes Mia feel better.

In school my teacher has been reading a book to my class and it’s called A Long Walk To Water by Lind Sue Park. Here are the questions my teacher gave us to answer:

1: What are the qualities of effective leadership?

2: How does Salva demonstrate these qualities?

How might Salva’s philosophy help you in your life?

Why is perseverance so important?

How can you better develop the ability to persevere?

The qualities of effective leadership are respect others, honesty, work as a team/teamwork, courage etc. One word that I think fits best for qualities of effective leadership is confidence. The reason why I think confidence is the best word to fit this is because you need to be confident and you need to show confidence if you are a leader of a group. I think Salva demonstrates these qualities by working as a team with his “group”. I think this because there is a lot of fighting going around and I think that Salva tries to work as a team to keep everybody safe although his uncle did get killed by the soldiers. He also fits the word confident a lot. He is so confident to be walking outside finding food and also being near the soldiers which could be very dangerous. Also he walks around with no shoes on which also could be very dangerous. He could hurt his foot by stepping on something that is prickly or is like a needle. I think that he is very confident to be doing all of these things outside.

Salva’s philosophy can help me in my life because if something is hard or scary for Salva like going near the soldiers he just does it and he has so much confidence. That can help me in my life because when something is hard, challenging or scary for me I can just think back to Salva and say to myself , “if Salva is doing something challenging for him and he just it and has so much confidence, why can’t I just do what I’m going to do with so much confidence?” Once I do that I will get used to that feeling and just go ahead and do the thing that is challenging for me with so much confidence in me. I feel that Salva is teaching a great lesson here which is to always persevere. This lesson is not just going to me, it is going everybody in the world. Perseverance is so important because you have to learn how to persevere if something is challenging for you and there are a lot of things in the world that are challenging. If you don’t learn how to persevere than a lot of things in the world will be a big obstacle for you. Even though overcoming your obstacle is a good thing because you learn a lot from it, it also could be a bad thing because then you won’t be able to do a lot of things in the world because you didn’t learn how to have perseverance. I think a good way to develop the ability to persevere is to go and try new and challenging things in the world that will make you have perseverance because than you will get the feeling and then things will be easier for you to do in the world.

At home I am reading a book called Savvy. Savvy means to have a “magical power”. In this book a girl named Mibs is turning 13 and is discovering her savvy just like her other siblings went through. She has so much pressure on her like her dad just got into a car accident right before she turns 13 and also she is trying to get to her father up at Salina Hope Hospital. It all depends on her savvy, family and friends. Her savvy will help her get up to Salina and find her dad. Everyone needs to help. I might already even know what her savvy is because in the story when she wakes up in the morning her sister woke up at the same time as well as her brother’s turtle that has been sleeping everyday for so long woke up. Maybe she has the power to wake everyone up. That relates to her father because maybe during the car accident, Mibs dad got really hurt and died and maybe she has the power to wake him up again. Since a driver named Lester is a delivery man and is heading up to Salina to deliver something and also is taking Mibs, maybe once they get close she can use her savvy to wake her father up and he will be ok in time for her birthday. I wonder how she is going to figure out her power? Is her dad going to make it in time for Mibs 13th birthday?

Our teacher is reading a book called Home of the Brave. We ask questions to help each other think about the book better. Here is one of the questions: Gol is a cow, but Katherine Applegate (author of Home of The Brave) also uses her as a symbol. How does Gol represent Kek’s past, present, and possibly his future?

Gol represents Kek’s past because most of Kek’s family members died. When Kek sees Gol he remembers his family because gol means family and also it reminds him of Africa and that’s where Kek came from. Gol symbolizes love for Kek. Kek loves his family. Gol being there is like Kek’s family being there. When he was taking care of gol, Kek felt like gol was apart of his family. I think gol might represent Kek’s future because maybe Kek will go back and take care of gol and than gol will be a real part of his family and he will be by Kek’s side. Kek is trying to get Gol to go to the petting zoo and to have a nice new place to stay and Kek is trying to get a new life back. Somehow Kek and Gol are alike.